“[NAW’s] Playing With A Ton Of Confidence.” | Chris Finch Postgame Sound | 02.13.24

“[NAW’s] Playing With A Ton Of Confidence.” | Chris Finch Postgame Sound | 02.13.24

Chris this felt like one of those games maybe last year that you guys wouldn’t have been able to pull off on the second night of a back toback what is this do you feel like this is one of these steps that you guys continue to make this

Season I mean last last week we’ve we’ve um no yeah um um did a good job just kind of you know playing um finding enough in the game to kind of keep you know keep uh keep them from getting a real run together you know they did a

Good job of of of you know pushing and coming at us and um and then uh just found enough defense and offense at the same time to start the fourth really so and asking aunt about nil’s game he said what he liked about it was that he’s playing with confidence that he had

Turned the ball over but then hit those three-pointers and that just kind of seen that confidence during the game is is that what you’re seeing yeah a little bit of a rough start for the fourth I mean we we fouled on three-point shooter and then we turned it over um then I

Think we went on 184 run you know um you know so yeah had a great job I thought you know defensively he was really really good kind of came in and shut Simon’s uh water off for a bit and then offensively you know he just kept moving into the right window and Mike

Kept finding him and um you know playing playing with a playing with a ton of confidence right now with with Mel just from it’s been a year since you you had him here now the whether it’s his confidence or or anything that he’s just done with his game where’s he kind of

Grown the most in your eyes uh you know he’s probably grown the most um with his kind of composure more you know he doesn’t seemingly get rattled um when he when he makes like he had he’s always had a habit to kind of get down on

Himself when when he has made um some tough plays um but he plays through that now bounces back uh he understands like you know defensively that’s where it all starts for him and you know he’s just this decision- making on offense has been really quick and for the most part

Really really clean um and so yeah just but that all comes from just I think having a little bit more composure comes in questionable plays on the second night of a back toback scores 41 played as well as he as he did tonight um you you talked about kind of

Instilling this this kind of culture and just wasn’t say about maybe his toughness was the maybe the toughness that you’re trying to establish yeah I think you know able to do that on yeah I mean really proud of him um I know he was banged up and last night it was a

Super physical game tonight ended up being really physical game too um you know he kind of got off to a slow start then he got hot you know and once he gets hot you know he’s there’s no no getting him off the floor really uh but

We have a bunch of guys who love to play like that’s just where it starts I think that’s what we like about you know one of the things we like about our guys they just love to come and play no matter what the circumstances are um and

Um you know he was pretty emblematic of that tonight so what’s kind of unlocked maybe for him the last couple of games specifically uh offensively you talked a lot about last night you you guys were talking about playing off the catch maybe there wasn’t as much of that

Tonight but we kind of work yeah I think like when you look at his offense right now when he when he makes quick decisions whether it’s off the catch catch and shoot you know get downhill um you know it everything kind of well two things one is he’s really hard to guard

Because he’s a super explosive he shoots it at such a high clip um and then that opens up a lot of passing Windows because the defense has to come you can see them coming earlier you know when he when he holds and he plays a little bit

Slower and he plays Super deliberate and he and he tries to kind of f uh you know kind of poke his way through that’s when he gets in trouble and then passing windows closed down because you know he’s not really forcing the defense to commit so that’s been the key for him um

Also you know he’s been a little bit more active in transition we’ve been pushing him like to to to get out and run a little bit more and be more kind of dynamic in transition and today you know he cut you know off the ball he

Really cut and moved off the ball and I think that’s key when you know teams are going to try to take the ball out of his hands with denial Chris what’s the what’s the challenge in playing great defense 82 games over the course of the season I mean you guys have this this

Standard but to it’s kind of high high bar to to match night tonight well I think the challenges obviously you know it takes a lot of effort you know and you got to do it all the way through the game for the most part you know um but

If you if we want to win and that’s what that’s how we have to win I mean our offense has been better I think of late for sure um but you know I think you know guys understand that uh that that it uh that has to be be it so um but it

Is it is tough at times you know particularly when you kind of trade in punches or you get up in the game and then you just let it slide just a a little bit human nature factors in but um you know thankfully tonight we’re

Able to find it again but yeah it can be a challenge but I think our guys like the guard so it helps you know helps there Chris uh a kind of a big two-parter question your bigs um first off uh where’s the trust level at with

Cat where you you trusted him during the foul and it didn’t pan but where where’s the trust level there that you you’re just like let’s see how this rolls yeah and then oh oh sorry yeah so I mean I every you know every player and every um every situation a little different you

Know um I generally like to play our players through foul trouble I I don’t like to sit them I don’t like to you know we what we would call foul our own guys out by you know um but I just felt tonight like you know I couldn’t afford to have him at

The fourth early uh and you know as it P out he was never really able to get into the game but he did come alive he got like the free throws in the third and that was huge for us cuz you know we really didn’t have much going and his

His ability to get to the free throw line um kind of just gave us enough right there so second part the other big part of it is uh go there was twice I noticed you um he caught it without hesitation about 6 ft out didn’t look

The pass and just took it right how big is that for him to spread the off F and get things going and just decisively just going for it yeah I mean listen we trust Rudy you know we trust him with the ball uh whether it be you know in

Our set plays at the top of the floor you know in the in the in the paint um just like everyone else he’s not always going to make the right decision but we want him to feel comfortable and confident uh he’s been really doing a

Great job of you know kind of I think tonight he forced a few things early which has been uncharacteristic of him late um but I do really think that was a reaction to maybe not getting a few calls that he thought he was going to

Get he was kind of just got um you know was out to prove a point there but um he self-corrected very well so but you know he was 7even for 10 tonight so a lot of them were offensive rebounds which is huge for us yeah K had 14 assists and

Zero turnovers the last two nights combined does it seem like he’s kind of getting his Swagger back a little bit off the bench setting guys up yeah definitely um he’s been huge for us you know playmaking uh defense makes all the little plays um you know and I I like the fact that

Again he’s like everyone else he’s kind of going quickly um yeah so it’s it you know this is the KY we saw all of last year and if we can capture this version down the stretch and we felt that um you know we we would you know we would be

Able to get this maybe you know like a lot of guys have some anxiety around the trade deadline and once that passes um you know things calm down so

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